Cleaning RAMchips and other surfaces

[grinder]

when im not satisfied with a blast of canned air i usually turn to my shaving brush (the hairs get into those bumpy, textured, resistor/capacitor ridden landscapes of the PCB). Does a good enough job when doing scheduled regular cleanings.

I couldn't handle the downtime that a "overnight dry" would cause. heh

yours truly, the digitally addicted.. heh

[Lithotech]

Microfiber cloths can be bought at the Dollar Store, good cheap supply -- almost disposable.

I still use paper towels a lot, coffee filter paper is too stiff and abrasive imho. I also use qtips and a paper shop towel you can get at Wallmart automotive for really heavy jobs.

A good quality paint brush with a tapered tip is a godsend. Brush off dust easily, before a quick shot of air. Saves me a fortune in canned air. Once the brush gets old, I replace it and use the old one for dirtier jobs. Great for getting in nooks and crannys of dirty cases. Hold a vacuume nozzel nearby to catch all the dust the brush stirs up.

Nearly all cleaning I do is with alcohol, but when it isn't enough I go to acetone. Be careful with acetone, it'll melt some plastic and take paint off a case. I also keep a can of Safety Wash handy, it is a contact cleaner and leaves no residue.

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[ByteMe]

Is it safe to use that Arctic Silver adhesive on the voltage regulator chips on an 8800 GTS to attach heatsinks to them ?

I bought an Arctic Cooler 3rd party hsf for my 8800 GTS, and the little heatsinks that came with it for the voltage regulator chips didn't seem to stick too well, even though I cleaned them as thoroughly as possible with 91% isopropyl. So I wondered if I could use the arctic silver adhesive instead of the flimsy adhesive already attached to the little heatsinks. What came on them seems no stronger than Scotch tape adhesive. Is the arctic silver adhesive conductive, the voltage regulator chips insulated?

[SugarJ]

Once those ramsinks get some heat into them, that little adhesive strip bonds much better. Just be careful mounting your board. AS5 is just a thermal paste, and is not adhesive, as far as I know.

[Squeetard]

I had no end of trouble on my ramsinks and the double sided thermal tape. They kept falling off. Cleaned the hell out of them too. One fell off and shorted my audigy below it, killed it dead, grrr.

I used the arctic silver thermal adhesive after that, works great. I even removed them and put them on another card already. The are stuck really good but you can get them off if you are carefull.

[ByteMe]

Thanks for the replies.

What's this about them falling of and killing your audigy? I assume you mean your sound card. I have one of them right below my 8800 GTS.
Yeah, that's just what I need.

Well, nothing bad has happened yet. I *was* thinking maybe they stick better after heating up some, and frankly I'm amazed they haven't fallen off, but they're still there, so I guess it is the heating up after all.

BTW, Arctic Silver makes thermal paste, yes, but Arctic Silver, Inc. is the name of the company and they also make thermal adhesive:
Newegg.com - Arctic Silver ASTA-7G (2-PC-SET) Premium Silver Thermal Adhesive - Thermal Compound / Grease

I was particularly concerned about this statement: "Arctic Silver is designed to conduct heat and not electricity even with its high silver content. When cured it does have some capacitance however, so it's best to keep it away from traces or leads."

I'm not really sure what is the nature of the material on top of the voltage regulators, but thinking about it now, I suppose if it's safe to have the metal heatsinks attached directly to them, it should be safe to use the adhesive.

[Squeetard]

Mine fell off after they heated up. Always. I even bought some aftermarket thermal tape that was supposed to be better than the stuff the ramsinks came with.

I've tested artic silver paste and adhesive for conductivity and there was zero. You could slather your whole card in it and get no problems.

[ByteMe]

Thank you for confirming that for me squeetard. :)

[Cptn Vortex]

The thermal adhesive will NOT come off once you put it on......Trust me, my 8800GTX is now permanently unable to put the stuck heatsink back on!

[Lithotech]

The ramsinks that come with the Accelero vid card coolers have a pitiful two sided tape goo on them. It does not look like any sort of thermal adhesive at all, and more like a plain two-way tape. It seems like they hardly stick at all, yet on my card they have yet to fall off. I am afraid to touch them to see how stuck they are, in case it falls off.

I did clean the memory chips with alcohol first, a must (I think) no matter what is going on them.

Actually, I do recall one of them not sticking, and I cleaned it off and replaced it with some Tesa two-way tape I had, been fine.

Regardless, I've made a mental note to not use this vid card in a system that has any cards below the vid (like sound).

Thermal adhesive is one material I don't have in my supplies, just haven't run into the absolute need for it. One day, I am sure...

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